Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes

Ultimately, we are not seeking others to bow to, but to reinforce our individual natures, to help us suffer our own choices, to guide us on our own particular journeys.

I am not reggae, I am me. I am bigger than the limits that are put on me. It all has to do with the individual journey.

I write human stories. I write about people. Not as a product of their environment. But from the stance that everybody is made of the same thing.

Whatever each individual woman is facing - only she knows her biggest challenge.

I had to examine myself very thoroughly to find the right path personally.

Before you can follow your own drummer, you have to hear the drummer.

Everybody has their own path. I got mine.

The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people’s expectations.

You've got to be oblivious to other people, the push and pull of other people's opinions, the way other people measure success. It's then that you realize you are 100 percent who you are and you have to use that who-you-are 100 percent in order to create great things.

It ain't the roads we take; it's what's inside of us that makes us turn out the way we do.

Be who you are. If you spend all of your time worrying about how people view you, you will not be either faithful to yourself or effective in what you're trying to do.

My work is trying to at least define myself on my own terms, and then if other people enjoy things that's a lovely addition.

When you are eighty years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices.

A woman who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people’s evaluations. But no one can adapt perfectly to public opinion. And herein lies the source of their destruction.

I stopped looking at people's opinions. It's easy to get caught up in what other people think.

Always stay in your own movie.

Remind people who they are instead of just complimenting them on what they've done.

Today I will realize that I'm powerless over other people's expectations of me. I'll think about what I want and consider that how I respond to others' needs will affect the course of my life. I will own my own power and choose the course that's right for me.

We are not the person other people wish we were. We are who we decide to be.

So, I guess we are who we are for alot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

One thing about me, when I make a decision about something, I realize when you make choices in life, that dictates your life.

If we resist the temptation to allow other people to define who we are, then we will gradually be able to let the sun inside our own soul shine forth.

I'm not acting; I'm not playing me. People forget that their actions make them who they are.

I think that's great - I just try not to be one of those people. I find the more I think about it, the less free I feel when I write and when I work.

I'm not interested in saying what people should and shouldn't do. It depends on how people feel about themselves. I suppose personally if you do anything out of fear or to mask who you are, then that's a bit scary. You've got to work with what you got.